


Castings

by Supertights



Category: Marvel (Comics), New Warriors
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Body Paint, Crack Pairing, Fluff and Crack, Gen, Male Friendship, Misunderstandings, Spells & Enchantments, The Author Regrets Everything, Wordcount: Over 1.000, au bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-01
Updated: 2011-09-01
Packaged: 2017-11-23 23:33:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/627756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Supertights/pseuds/Supertights
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Richard might've smeared the protective body paint and ruined everything but he's not going to admit it to Vance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Castings

**Author's Note:**

> Unbetaed. One square on my 2011 AU Bingo card.

Richard sat cross-legged on Vance's unmade bed, watching avidly as the boy took a handful of candles and makings from his shelves. He loved looking through the many odd little things that Vance found and haggled for in markets and antiquity shops. They sat covered in a layer of dust that was manufactured to look like it was all for show and not actual use. Vance had once even admitted creating the odd harmless love charm in return for rarer materials, a finger bone from a dead hagwidow or some such. His friend performing love magic had been so unexpected that he'd almost laughed hard enough to crack a rib.

A large and dusty scroll lay beside Richard, held open by two large crystals top and bottom, it left grey smears of ancient dust on the heavy bedcover as Vance moved it to read the page again.

"Okay, here goes nothing--" he murmured, pulling his sleeves up.

He began marking the floor with a large stick of bone white chalk, the circle taking shape over the hours he spent down on his hands and knees, crawling around on the wooden floor. He stood, creaking and groaning as he stretched and put aside the nub of chalk. "I think I'm getting prematurely old, no one told me there'd be so much kneeling with all this spell casting," he said with a grimace. "Did I miss any of the runes?"

Studying the scroll, Richard checked it carefully against the circle. "Looks good to me. You ready?"

Vance nodded and pulled the robe off over his head, self conscious of his nudity, his arms twitched nervously across his chest as Richard picked up a small pot of paint and begin daubing it on his cheeks and forehead.

Shivering, Vance closed his eyes and felt the soft brush smear across the lids, "Thank you," he said.

"Shush." Rich was painting his mouth. "Keep everything closed for now." He paused, then added, "I was wondering why you picked me out of everyone. Mistress Tai says all the time that I'm a lazy student, worse than Robert, and that I'll never amount to much of a witch."

There was no reply for a long time, long enough to complete Vance's torso and arms. He looked up from his work on Vance's belly.

Vance was struggling not to smile and crack the paint.

"It's not funny."

"It is a little funny. You _are_  a bad student in many ways," replied Vance, experimentally. He raised a finger to touch the paint on his mouth, finding it dry enough. "But I still trust you more than anyone else here."

"Turn around, I've finished the front." Rich sat back on his heels. "Maybe I like it when you tutor me privately," he said, taking his time on Vance's buttocks. "Your ass is going to be fine art."

"Going to be?" Vance looked over his shoulder.

Richard laughed and the brush began working down the backs of his legs. "Okay, okay, it was a work of art before I started."

"Yes, but are you almost finished?"

"There, one personal physical spell of protection. Done." Richard stood up and put the pot aside. "Check it out--" He lifted the long mirror and held it up for Vance. The overall effect was similar to the warding circle on the floor but-- purple. "Why purple?"

"You should step out of the room while I do this." Vance took a box off the shelf and placed it on the floor near the circle. "Since you can't remember why purple."

Shaking his head, Richard sat back on the bed. "Nu uh. I'm staying. Someone has to keep an eye on you."

Vance picked up the paint. "Strip."

"I thought you'd never ask." Richard had no concerns about pulling off his robe and baring all. "While you're down there--"

"Don't push your luck."

It didn't take Vance long to paint his body in the same protective runes. "Purple is a good colour for me," he said, looking at himself in the mirror, contemplating a dress robe in the same shade. "Don't you think?"

Vance closed all the heavy drapes in his suite, shutting out the fast dimming twilight outside. "Light the candles for me."

Concentrating, each carefully placed tallow candle surrounding them lit simultaneously, the flaming wicks blazed then settled back down to a flicker. He grinned, pleased with himself. "Bad student, pfft."

Rolling his eyes, Vance pulled a box from the shelf and placed it inside the circle. Made from ivory and inlaid with shell and threads of precious metal, and about as much dust as the book, the box looked ancient. "I'm opening this, step inside the circle."

"Made it a little small, didn't we," said Rich, smirking as his hip pressed up hard against Vance's, smearing the paint slightly between them. He remembered then, why Vance had used purple. "Uh, should you be opening this in the academy grounds? It looks kind of dangerous to me."

Ignoring him, Vance opened the box.

 

"Ow." Richard was lying under a pile of scrolls. The entire contents of a large shelf had fallen on him, then the shelf, when he'd been thrown across the room. He looked at his arms, smears of blood coloured his bruised skin. "Hey, the body paint is gone."

Vance groaned and sat up. His bed was a ruin of splintered wood and torn fabric beneath him. "Did it work?"

Every window and piece of glass in the room was shattered, everything else was on the floor. The crystal wand lay in the middle of the devastation. The chalk circle was gone, burned out, and the wand box was embedded in the wall above Richard. "Guess so."

"Cool. I think I'm gonna just-- lie here for a while." Vance flopped back against a torn pillow. A cloud of feathers rose in the air above him and he sneezed repeatedly for a few seconds. Giving up on that idea, he crawled over and picked up the wand, hiding it in the torn remnants of his robe which he snagged from the broken bed post.

With a crash, the door was thrown back and a woman fell through, catching herself. Namorita looked around the room and began to laugh. Behind her, Angelica and Robert peeked in then grinned at each other.

"Oh man, Vance, you are so dead when Taylor sees this," wheezed Namorita. "Where is you partner in crime?"

Richard waved weakly at her from beneath the pile of scrolls.

"Good Goddess, boys, do you think your couplings could go a little more quietly in future, and possibly without destroying an whole suite? Don't give Mistress Tai more reason to boot you both out. Air and fire don't mix, you two should know better." She winked and left, pulling the broken door shut behind her.

"Couplings?" repeated Richard, alternating between snorting and hysterical giggling.

Vance made a strangled noise and collapsed back into the pillows.


End file.
